Amidst their criticizing of delmarvanow.com staff writers about fact-checking and conflicting quotes within their stories, author “Cato” (a one “G. A. Harrison”) over on Delmarva Dealings apparently cannot be bothered to do his own research beyond Council Member Holloway’s photocopied “examples” (PDF) mentioned earlier this week, and has determined that Dragon Ball is “smut”.
The stories (split among three parts: one / two / three) are a fascinating read from an educated perspective. While our own commentary here on the website and in our latest podcast episode basically comes to the conclusion that nearly everyone can agree on (in the school library, maybe not so much; pull it on out and let’s be done), the articles’ continued demonization of this wacky story about a monkey boy reaches extreme new levels. It seems as if only their commenter Kevin Waterman has a realistic viewpoint, clearly noting that nothing shown is “erotic” in any way. Further comments and discussion go on to whine how the series clearly is not “high art”, and commenters latch on to “Cato” and their wondrous use of the word “smut” to define the series over and over. Parents also go on to complain how their children are reading Naruto with its few redeeming qualities.
To be fair, we here are not yet parents… but it is not all that far off in the future. They are going to be exposed to Dragon Ball at some point in their young lives, and it is not going to be too much of a problem for us. As we have noted before, this stuff always has been for kids and always will be. Is it just that our generation actually has a realistic perspective on media that is completely unmatched by anyone other than our own peers? Were the childhoods of these people so barren that they never said the word “poop” aloud, saw funny pictures, or read trashy stories (yes, even comic books) which their own parents could not understand the educational value of? We seriously wonder, sometimes, if these people forget what it was like to be a kid.
I asked my co-hosts on the podcast if we were making a bigger deal out of this story and giving it more attention than it should otherwise be given. The consensus was that once the “child pornography” card was played, all bets were off and the commentary was free to flow.
“Cato” has decided that the series is “smut”; I wonder what that makes us…? Well, regular visitors… you know where you can check in every day for the latest news, commentary, and multimedia for your favorite low-class smut from plenty of college-educated adults!